Chapter 99 - You Die (2)

I kept on cooking pancakes.

"Thank you."

"The pancakes are delicious!"

The kids chattered away as they ate their pancakes.

"I wish the pancake mister would keep making pancakes forever."

That was when Soo-ah glanced down at the kids with a sidelong look.

".........."

She suddenly spoke in a pouty tone.

"Hey! There's barely any age difference, so don't call him mister! Stop calling him that!"

"Huh?"

The kids seemed used to it, exchanging glances with expressions that said, 'Why is Soo-ah unnie acting up again?'

I stared at Soo-ah in disbelief too.

'Does she not realize how ridiculous she sounds?'

"Soo-ah, you know there's only a three-year gap between you and me, right?"

Kim Yo-han, twenty-one. Self-proclaimed adorable Namgung Soo-ah, eighteen.

Naturally, the age gap between Soo-ah and me was even smaller than the one between me and the Cathedral orphans.

But Soo-ah responded as if I were the one saying something absurd.

"What? I call him mister because I want to, regardless of age! Got a problem with that!?"

My eyes blinked on their own as I looked at Soo-ah.

'Is she insane?'

"Just eat your pancake."

I placed a finished pancake on a plate and handed it to her.

Soo-ah picked up a piece with her fork and ate it.

"Hmph, munch munch... It's decent."

She subtly snuck a glance at me and said.

"...So do you not like being called mister?"

"Do you not like being called mister?"

For some reason, the kids repeated after her. Well, kids do tend to mimic everything.

Sizzle.

I flipped a pancake and said.

"Not really."

I felt like I'd said this before, but.

"I don't care about titles. Call me whatever you want."

"Hmm~ Got it."

Soo-ah smiled with the corners of her lips turned up and spun around.

In a cheerful voice, she pulled a tub of ice cream out of the fridge.

"Pancakes~ gotta eat them with ice cream."

"Soo-ah unnie! Us too! Us too, ice cream!"

The kids swarmed around Soo-ah.

I finally ate my own share of pancakes in peace.

".........."

Still, as expected, pancakes alone weren't quite enough for a proper meal.

Not enough protein.

I took some bacon out of the fridge to cook and sliced a bit of cabbage into a salad.

I'd already fed the kids, so I figured I could afford to eat this much myself.

Pancakes, bacon, salad.

American-style breakfast, complete.

I ate the pancakes and bacon.

Munch munch~.

In American movies, you often see people eating pancakes and bacon together for breakfast.

I used to wonder what kind of combination that was.

It was just, well, perfectly fine. Both tasted good, so why not.

Right around the time I finished eating.

Ellie came back with Ji-ye.

"Soo-ah, sorry I'm late. What did you do about the kids' food...?"

Then, drawn by the sweet smell of pancakes wafting through the air, Ellie went to the kitchen and looked slightly surprised.

Soon she smiled and said, turning to me.

"Did you make pancakes for the kids, Yo-han? Thank you so much!"

"There were ingredients, so. There's batter left over, want some too?"

"Oh, then I'll gladly have some."

I got up from the table to cook more pancakes.

"You didn't have to, but you went and helped...."

Ellie looked up at me with a genuinely innocent smile.

"You're really kind and sweet, Yo-han."

That was unexpected.

It felt like sparkles radiating from Ellie's pure smile were pelting me in the face.

".........."

My mind went blank for a moment.

'...Am I? Am I kind?'

And then I snapped out of it immediately.

'No, there's no damn way I'm a kind person.'

I narrowed my eyes and looked down at Ellie.

".........."

Putting on that innocent face, telling people they're kind, so kind, gaslighting them.

Truly a terrifying woman.

Ellie had no idea what was going on and simply tilted her head slightly.

***

It's nothing but ghostbusting work from now on! Time to make money!

...was what I'd resolved, but exorcist jobs weren't coming in at all.

For the time being, I rested and went through my usual routine of Breathing Technique and magic training.

I had to wait for the custom magic item I'd ordered from the [Mephisto Market] to be completed anyway.

Breathing Technique training.

Following the instructions written in the <Baopuzi>, I did health exercises and ran around while controlling my breathing.

On top of that, I called over Lee Mun-ryong, who was staying near the Cathedral, to learn close-quarters combat.

The Breathing Technique had boosted my physical abilities, but.

Rather than just throwing wild haymakers powered by brute strength, it seemed better to learn properly since I had a martial arts expert right next to me.

Lee Mun-ryong nodded and took his stance.

"Understood. I'll teach you the basics then. First is the Crashing Fist, a strike delivered with full force."

Well, in the end what I was learning was still a power punch.

Lee Mun-ryong demonstrated a few times.

"Don't try to learn a bunch of random things."

He corrected my form and technique, then said.

"Make sure you master this so you can use it as a quick, precise surprise strike to the solar plexus or jaw of anyone who lets their guard down thinking, 'He's a wizard, so he can't fight up close.'"

"That's exactly why I'm learning it, so we're on the same page."

Say what you will, Lee Mun-ryong and I were actually quite compatible in style.

Anyway, now for magic training.

I read through grimoires, reviewing and studying the material.

I played pronunciation correction videos on YouTube and followed along.

"Ah, eh, ee, oh, oo."

Soo-ah, who had been watching from behind, blinked and asked.

"Mister, what are you doing?"

"Incantation training."

"...I imagined magic training would be something like meditating, like in a fantasy story, but I guess not."

This was occult magic, not fantasy magic.

That kind of thing mattered too, sure, but this sort of preparation was just as important.

"You should practice regularly too. You can't stumble or skip words when reciting an incantation."

"Got it."

And since I had some free time, I decided to remake the magic tools that had been lost when my house burned down.

Things like Holy Water, an Aspergillum, earthen vessels, and so on.

Fortunately, I had previously told Soo-ah to make Holy Water every Wednesday.

She'd actually remembered and had some prepared.

Beyond the Holy Water, there were also vessels and materials and tools needed for making magic incense in Soo-ah's room, so I decided to use those for the time being.

"Aaagh~ Don't take everything!"

"That's how it is."

Now I understood why wizards raised apprentices.

When push came to shove, you could just take your apprentice's magic tools and use them.

As I spent my days like that.

Studying English as usual in preparation for fleeing abroad, time passed.

The item I'd custom-ordered from the [Mephisto Market] arrived too.

The process required magic to make, that was all.

It wasn't a particularly complicated item, so it hadn't taken very long.

And then Friday came.

Vroom.

I sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly at the scenery passing by the window.

Ellie sat in the driver's seat, steering as she spoke.

"Yo-han, thank you for coming along as a camp helper again this time."

"I'm a freelancer with no work. I'm happy to take any job I can get."

That's right. With no ghostbusting work coming in, I had been hired once again as a helper for Ellie's Cathedral camp.

After Ji-ye had been attacked by the Clown Anomaly because she wished she could go somewhere fun.

Having heard what Ji-ye said, Ellie wanted to create good memories for the orphanage kids.

And since the last camp had essentially been ruined by the zombie incident and no one got to properly enjoy it, they decided to go on a second, real camp trip.

Originally, Ellie had been considering an amusement park, but....

Ji-ye was still scared after being attacked by the Clown Anomaly, so it was changed to a camp instead.

So this time, to scout out whether the camp location was suitable, Ellie, Soo-ah, and I went on an advance visit.

...Though Soo-ah seemed like she was just tagging along because she wanted to have fun.

Anyway, someone who helped with Cathedral work agreed to watch the kids for a while.

Soo-ah leaned forward from the back seat and said.

"So what kind of place is this campsite we're going to?"

"I found it online. It's a big mountain lodge with a nice atmosphere. I've only seen photos, but the facilities look good and the price is reasonable, so I thought it'd be a fun place to go with the kids."

Ellie continued, explaining to me.

"Oh, since we're not renting the whole place this time, there might be other guests staying there too."

My eyes quietly narrowed.

...A reasonably priced, large mountain lodge.

The classic setting for a mystery murder case.

".........."

Well, it's not like something weird would happen every single time we went camping.

There were no kids to look after, and we just had to relax for one night and two days before heading back.

Ellie wore a bright, gentle smile.

"The listing said the lodge owner has some fun games prepared. I wonder what kind of games they'll be?"

Soo-ah said indifferently.

"It's probably just something like board games."

.

.

.

A mountain lodge stained with blood, dismembered bodies strewn about.

"Haa, haa."

A man exhaled ragged breaths, looking down at the mangled corpse beneath him, stabbed dozens of times.

"No, no... I didn't kill them...!"

Clatter.

The blood-stained kitchen knife slipped from the man's hand and fell to the floor.

"That guy did this! ...He was trying to kill me! It was self-defense! Self-defense!"

The man clutched his face with his hands. A voice like nails scraping against his throat seeped out.

"I'm... I'm... not a serial killer. I'm not the culprit."

Through his trembling eyes, the man caught sight of an envelope placed on the dining table.

[Murder Mystery – Mountain Lodge Serial Killing, Find the Culprit.]

A deduction role-play game where you find the killer.

...To the man, it looked more ominous than anything else.

That had been the start of everything.

After dinner, the guests had all gathered together, and it wasn't just a fun game they were playing.

"Haa...."

The man exhaled roughly and gradually calmed down.

He looked down again at the corpse collapsed at his feet.

...It was fine now, at least.

The serial killer who had been hiding their identity and murdering the others was dead.

He was alone, but just as the relief of having survived washed over the man and he let out a breath.

"Whew...."

Creak, creak, creak.

The sound of the lodge floorboards being pressed down reached his ears.

".........?"

The sound drew closer from behind him, steady and rhythmic, as if someone were approaching.

Creak, creak, creak.

...That couldn't be.

Of the eight guests, all seven besides himself had been killed by the serial killer.

There couldn't be anyone else.

The man turned around slowly, paralyzed with fear.

"Aah."

And just like that, the blood-soaked mountain lodge was cleaned up nice and neat.

And now, once again....

New guests were arriving.

Whoosh!

The lodge door opened and wind blew in, rustling the hem of a white coat.

Step, step.

A man with a calm demeanor walked in and casually scanned the interior of the lodge.

"It's cleaner inside than I expected."

It was Kim Yo-han.